Son and Father

Liu Shiheng and Yang Qingbai, who had disappeared even earlier, had both returned. Probably still riding the excitement of having just finished their tests, neither went back to sleep. Instead, they leaned against the tent entrance chatting in low voices. When they saw Han Qingyu come in, they looked up and asked, "How'd it go, Qingzi?" "No idea. I just walked to the end, and nobody told me my result." Han Qingyu spread his hands and asked, "What about you two?" "Same here. Didn't tell us a thing." Liu Shiheng frowned dejectedly. "Though I did feel that stuff later on... I doubt I'll be escaping this." Hailing from Gangcheng, Liu Shiheng came from a family with hundreds of millions in assets. He had been forced into the ranks only after running into a Great Spike while out hunting, and had no desire to risk his neck on the frontlines. He had always admitted this quite candidly; he simply had no power to resist, so his only hope was that his fusion test result would turn out to be "Incapable" or "Grade F." "I felt it too," Yang Qingbai said with a grin. "Felt pretty comfortable, actually." "Mm." After Han Qingyu replied, he found himself at a loss for words, so he said, "Neither of you sleeping? If you aren't, I'm heading back to bed." With that, he hugged his arms, slipped back inside the tent, dove beneath the covers, and wrapped himself tightly in the thin military-issue quilt. Truth be told, this place was shrouded in secrecy. He had no idea where they actually were. For a base this vast, with so many people, to remain completely hidden, just how massive an area around it had to be deserted wilderness? In any case, it had to be up north, because it was genuinely cold and the wind blew hard. In late September, an overcoat still left a person shivering at night, and sleeping required being bundled up in a quilt. Taking stock of everything, his questions remained, and had only multiplied. There was so much about himself that Han Qingyu couldn't comprehend, nor did he possess the experience or skill to judge any of it. Only the liquid source energy gathered in his body at this moment gave him a sense of reassurance... He just wanted to grow stronger and survive, that was all. As long as he stayed alive, many questions would naturally resolve themselves one day—or if they never did, it wouldn't matter either. Just as Han Qingyu was drifting off, a hand lightly patted him through the quilt. Han Qingyu opened his eyes and turned his head. Liu Shiheng was squatting beside him. "Qingzi... down the line, whenever you can manage it, look out for me a bit. If there's ever a chance to go outside, or even just visit home, I'll have someone deliver a few hundred thousand or a couple million to your family." Even though he spoke like that, his eyes showed no intent of throwing money around or hiring a bodyguard. Likely, it was simply... the logic he had grown up with. What you lack, I have. What I lack, you have. A fair trade. Han Qingyu thought about it and gave a soundless chuckle. Reaching an arm out from under the quilt, he patted the outer side of Liu Shiheng's shoulder. "Where I come from, living life doesn't take millions... Go to sleep." Despite that answer, Liu Shiheng felt an inexplicable sense of relief upon hearing it. *** Elsewhere. Waiting downwind, Li Wangqiang finally spotted the chief of staff returning. He hastily took the cigarette he had just been about to light out of his mouth, shoved it back into the pack, and hurried forward. "How did it go? Did you find her?" "Found her. I explained the situation... Senior Sister said she happens to be going on shift change, and she'll ask around within reason." "That's good. Then..." "Senior Sister told us to wait out back." As the chief of staff led the regimental commander on a detour, a faintly awkward grimace crossed his face as he grumbled, "Truth be told, the test results would've reached you down the line through standard procedure anyway; otherwise Senior Sister wouldn't have agreed. Doing this is still somewhat against their discipline, after all..." "Right, right, right. Many thanks to Senior Sister... Hey, how come she's so nice to you?" "Senior Sister has always been nice." "Oh, really?" Regimental Commander Li rolled his eyes in contemplation. "You haven't seen each other in years, yet with just a few words from you she's willing to help, and here you are fretting and fussing over her... Hey, did you two have something going on back then?" The chief of staff was speechless. *Something going on? Past feelings... a fling?* "You could rekindle that flame, you know..." Regimental Commander Li suggested. "Old Li, watch your mouth!" The chief of staff finally bristled. "Heh heh heh, my bad, my bad... I'm an uneducated roughneck, you know that. I apologize." Regimental Commander Li offered a shameless apology. "Besides, aren't I just nervous? When I start fishing for words, my tongue tends to run away with itself." "..." The chief of staff fell silent, sullenly leading him behind a building. "Where's this?" Standing beneath the base of the wall, separated from an iron-barred window, Regimental Commander Li took a sniff and felt something wasn't quite right. "The latrine," the chief of staff said coldly. "Men's or women's?" "Tsk..." The chief of staff rolled his eyes and sighed helplessly. "What do you think? The women's, of course." "Oh." Regimental Commander Li tilted his head to think, then dropped into an abrupt crouch. "If there happens to be a Grade A female soldier using the latrine in there, and she spots us and thinks we're up to no good, she might come out and hack the two of us to death..." "Shh." The chief of staff crouched down as well. After a short while, the tap-tap of footsteps approached. Presumably there were indeed other people inside the latrine, because Senior Sister didn't speak directly. After coughing twice as a signal, she wrote something down and slipped her hand through the window bars. The only information that could be asked about was what would eventually be made public: A. Regimental Commander Li stood up first. Seeing it, he froze. *Smack.* He actually swatted the girl's hand back inside. Then, completely deadpan, he turned and walked away. He walked at a furious pace. As he walked, he fished out a cigarette. His hand trembled, and the cigarette dropped, but he didn't even pick it up. Pulling out another with shaking fingers, he jammed it into his mouth, but his thumb kept slipping off the lighter wheel. Snatching the cigarette from his mouth, he crushed it in his palm. "Old Li! Old Li... What's wrong with you?" The chief of staff hadn't managed to see the result, only having time to wave a quick apology to Senior Sister before chasing after him. "Old Li..." One walked while the other ran, until the chief of staff finally caught up, reaching out to grab Li Wangqiang's uniform. "What's the situation? Calm down, Old Li!" Regimental Commander Li tried to pull free, failed, and simply dropped into a crouch right where he stood. "Old Li, Old Li..." "Mother of God." Regimental Commander Li slowly raised his head. "I can't calm down." "Then... sigh." "Damn it all, I, Li Wangqiang, wouldn't have dared to dream of this... He's a Grade A." "What?" "He's a Grade A." "...Huh? Ha! Haha, hahaha, really?!" "Really." The two men stood up, giggling foolishly and roughhousing like schoolboys—one punching the other, the other shoving back. Grade S was far too ethereal; for frontline officers like Regimental Commander Li, Grade A was the peak of what they could ever know or hope for. A Grade B was great too if nurtured properly—more than great. Both Grade B and Grade A possessed the potential to become pinnacle fighters in their eyes. For instance, among the top ten individual combatants upholding the Ninth Army's reputation, seven were Grade A and three were Grade B. This mixed makeup didn't mean there was no talent gap between Grade A and Grade B. Rather, in reality, there were simply too many unstable individual variables—issues of development, premature death, combat losses, and an entire host of other factors. On that front, Regiment 425 had grown accustomed to being thoroughly down on their luck for years. Yet this year, caught completely off guard, they had landed a Grade A! And it just so happened to be the very recruit they considered most promising to develop into a pinnacle combatant, the one who could uphold Regiment 425 in the future—Han Qingyu... "Close call," Regimental Commander Li suddenly muttered on the way back to camp. "What do you mean?" the chief of staff asked worriedly. "Three years back, Chen Mazi's unit produced an A+, and Regiment 402, directly under army command, demanded him. He died later," Regimental Commander Li said solemnly. "This... Are you sure they won't come asking for a Grade A too?" "I don't know, but there's no precedent for it anyway... If anyone comes asking, I'll fight them to the bitter end." "Right. But to be fair, army headquarters has their own considerations. Whether B or A, they're all very frail at the start..." The chief of staff was about to continue, knowing that recruits couldn't grow without being tempered on the frontlines. Regimental Commander Li suddenly reached out and clamped a heavy hand down on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. "Right, you just reminded me... He's still very frail right now." "He is." "So, the two of us need to get our heads on the same page first." "About what?" "Right now, he's Regiment 425's own son. In the future, he'll be our father." "...Get lost." An educated man couldn't stomach such nonsense. The chief of staff snapped, "Have some shame, Old Li." "I don't need shame," Regimental Commander Li retorted. Nonsense aside, the two straightened out their attitudes on the walk back to camp, aligning on a genuine course of action: no matter how fervent, anxious, or expectant they felt inside, they could not let that kid sense it too clearly. Back at the campsite, Regimental Commander Li lingered outside the tent without entering. He stood there, desperately wanting to go in and check whether their little Grade A kid had fallen asleep, whether he was sleeping well, and whether he had kicked off his quilt... He couldn't go in. *** Inside the source energy field corridor, Wen Jifei was enveloped in an immense sense of loneliness. In his visions, he saw his father walking alongside his stepmother, holding the hand of the younger sister born later. He saw an uncle standing beside his mother, cradling the younger brother born later in his arms. Both his parents wore doting smiles, saying to his half-siblings, "Quick, say hello to your big brother." His brother and sister didn't know him well, but both were very polite. "Big Brother." "Big Brother." "Hey." Then, his mother hugged his little brother, resting her forehead against his. "Good boy." His father swept his little sister up into his arms. "Oh, my little princess!" Wen Jifei said, "So well-behaved." In the next scene, he seemed to return to the weekends of his school days. Oil, salt, water... Once the water boiled, grab a handful of noodles, toss them in, scoop them out when cooked, and sit by the table to eat. Oil, salt, water... Once the water boiled, grab a handful of noodles, toss them in, scoop them out when cooked, and sit by the table to eat. He seemed to have lived like that for a very long time. He fell sick during the night, running a high fever with sharp pains in his stomach... He struggled to climb out of bed, boil hot water, and search for medicine. He had thought he would die that night... "Come hang out at my place this weekend?" In the next scene, Han Qingyu asked from atop a bicycle. "Sure," he said. At that moment, Wen Jifei felt immense joy. Yet as the bicycle pedaled along the mountain path, on and on, the scene suddenly shifted again. Qingzi was alone, seemingly fighting school hooligans... No, not hooligans... Wen Jifei saw clearly now: Qingzi was holding a blade, locked in combat with Great Spikes, taking on two of them by himself... Qingzi had become formidable, but those were Great Spikes. Wen Jifei thought: *I have to help.* Just as he was about to charge forward... Han Qingyu turned his head at that critical, split-second juncture and yelled, "Don't come over! Stay hidden!" "I..." "Run! Get back!" "..." The immense sense of loneliness surged back over him. Wen Jifei struggled with all his might to break free. He could sense the presence of source energy, and he knew what it meant. Never mind whether the guiding officer had claimed being proactive was useless... He fought desperately, wanting to claim just a little bit more.